Subs sound weird most of the time

[MrSkippyJ]

I asked this in my other thread, but I figured it would be better to start a thread for just this question.

Question. My t400 is being run from the front inputs only. I have the JL 6.5s on the front outputs and the JL 8s on the rear outputs (bridged). At very low volumes, the subs sound great. At anything above very low volumes the subs sound blown except on a few songs at certain parts of the song. The front speakers sound fantastic at all volumes and on all songs.

The subs are nearly 8 years old and sat for about 5 years without being played. I hooked them up to my receiver in my house (full range signal @50w/sub) and they seemed like they played fine. Is it possible the sub can no longer handle rated power and that is causing the bad sound when I turn up the volume? And if so, what makes certain songs sound ok at times?

I want to add how much the T400 ROCKS! I am running it from a stock headunit with a line-out converter and it just sounds amazing! (minus subs)

[Nirvalica]

Could be the sub is being over powered, maybe playing at too low or high a frequency, or maybe it's in the wrong type of box. You didn't mention what type of enclosure the subs are in. Could be that the songs it sounds good on at those volumes have bass that is quieter (which would have the same effect as turning the bass down on a song with louder bass) or maybe the bass is more in the sub's range. It's hard to tell without hearing it or without more info. Like what songs does it sound good and what songs does it sound bad?

[MrSkippyJ]

They are in a single chamber sealed box, same box they were in when I had them in my S-10 and they sounded just fine then. When I say they sound bad most of the time, I mean 99% of the time. I know one song they sound good on, and it is a song that a local group from where I went to college recorded.

They way they sound is just like a blown sub. They hardly move and it just sounds bad. I very much doubt it is too much power, it is about 140w a sub. If it weren't for the 1% of the time they sound great, i would just say there were blown, but then there is that 1% of the time.

[Baydestrian]

are they out of phase?

[MrSkippyJ]

are they out of phase?

No, tried that. They are d4 ohm and I hooked one coil from one sub up from the amp just to make sure there no accidental hookup errors and even with that it made the same sound.

[MrSkippyJ]

are they out of phase?

Turned out one of the channels on the converter was wired out of phase. I thought I checked that out when I ran the front speakers full range and the bass response was great. Oh well, it is fixed now and I get to test how long the subs will last, they are still over 8 years old. If they make it to Christmas, I will build a new box and post up some pics.